Sherman fits where he should have stayed

By Buck Harvey :
January 26, 2012
: Updated: January 26, 2012 10:53am

Mike Sherman on Friday recounted that his family heard about his firing before he did. "That's disappointing, because I think we're better than that," he said. An A&M official later notified him by phone that he was fired.

Mike Sherman is the No. 1 candidate to become the next coach of the Buccaneers?

“We have learned the Bucs are interested in coaches,” wrote a Tampa columnist this month, “that even Texas A&M threw away.”

“Even” Texas A&M. SEC country doesn't appear to be overly impressed with its new brother.

But Sherman isn't a ludicrous NFL coaching candidate, and this goes back to 2007. Then, the Aggies pulled him from the pro setting, where he is at home.

At his final press conference in College Station in November, Sherman admitted as much.

Sherman will work in the NFL somewhere next season. The Dolphins' new coach, Joe Philbin, has expressed interest in hiring Sherman to be his offensive coordinator. And his name has also come up in Green Bay, where Sherman was once coach, to replace Philbin and handle offensive duties there.

Sherman has NFL credentials and respect, and some wondered last season if he missed the pro world. He often referenced the Texans and Packers when he coached the Aggies.

At times Sherman came across to the fans as someone who felt he had taken a step down. The Aggies didn't care about Brett Favre. They just wanted Sherman to win.

Sherman's step wasn't down, however, just in the wrong direction. He isn't comfortable as the face of a program, and he doesn't respond as one. Kevin Sumlin, for example, has already appeared on ESPN's “College Football Live;” those who keep up with these things don't think Sherman was ever on the show.

Sherman doesn't like selling as much as he does breaking down the game, though what he did on that front didn't stir the Aggies, either. If Sherman was so gifted in the film room, and had such touch with game plans, why couldn't he hold a halftime lead?

The NFL sees better examples. Sherman is the one who hired Philbin as a graduate assistant at Tulane, for example. And the Tampa Times, when critiquing his coaching ability this month, said “Sherman is a good teacher of fundamentals.”

If Sherman gets the job, he will be teaching another tall quarterback who played in the Big 12. Instead of Ryan Tannehill, Sherman would have Josh Freeman.

It might not seem like enough to warrant another head-coaching position, but there aren't many big-name candidates around. The Colts hired a defensive coordinator, Chuck Pagano, and the Raiders did the same with Dennis Allen.

So when Oregon's Chip Kelly pulled out of a deal with the Bucs on Monday, how many options were left? Sherman became the first to get a second interview with them.

The Aggies won't mind if Sherman lands the job. His NFL salary is expected to lessen A&M's financial obligation to him.

But they should also understand why they were mistaken when they hired him. He hadn't worked on a college campus for a decade for a reason. It's not his strength.

Asked at his goodbye press conference if coaching in college had been more difficult than he had thought it would be, Sherman nodded. “It's more difficult,” he said, “in the sense that you wear more hats and you do more things.”

He went on to list some of those things, such as mentoring players. But he left out those duties that have nothing to do with the next game — such as spending time with alumni and fundraising.

“In the NFL,” he said, “you have 40 hours with your players ... where you have a chance to do football all the time.”